Monday, July 21, 2008

I've always liked Carson Palmer, since he days at USC. I always felt that he was a solid quarterback with great field vision and a cannon for an arm. Well Carson has just endeared himself to me even more, and he may be winning some new fans after this verbal takedown of The "University of Ohio State."

I cannot stand the Buckeyes and having to live in Ohio and hear those people talk about their team it drives me absolutely nuts.

As a Michigan fan in Ohio, I couldn't have said it better myself. Love the Candor, a franchise QB in the Buckeye State just berating the most beloved team in the land. This man has some cajones.

It’s amazing to hear what those guys think about that university and what they think about that football program and Tressel and all the crap I gotta put up with being back there. I just can’t wait for two years from now when SC comes to the Shoe and hopefully we’ll have a home game that weekend and I can go up there and watch us pound on them in their own turf and kind of put all the talk to rest because I’m really getting sick of it and I just can’t wait for this game to get here so they can come out to the Coliseum and experience LA and get an ald [ed. - did he really say "ald?" This has to be a typo, even if he said ald, I'm sure it would have been transcribed as old, so I'm gonna go with a typo]-fashioned Pac-10 butt-whooppin and go back to the Big Ten.

Well Carson I'm with you, I really hope that the Trojans lay a beat down on Tress and the Bucks.

IMO this is without a doubt the biggest non-con game of the year and maybe the best early season showdown since that epic night game between OSU and Vince Young in 2005.(My early prediction is USC 27 OSU 24. I will cover this game with a nice little preview during the week of the game, as well as my official prediction.)

HT to Jim Rome, who talked about this story on the radio this afternoon.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Brian of Mgoblog started this wonderful feature, before unfortunately discontinuing it, however he did leave this awesome post about the d-line: http://mgoblog.com/content/anti-carr-team-defensive-line

I'm just gonna cut to the chase and start with what is in my mind the most obvious member of the Anti-Carr team, and that man is of course John Navarre 2001.

John Navarre burst onto the scene in 2000. His first games playing as a rs frosh for the injured Drew Henson were spectacular. In his first game he was 15-19 for 265 yards with 4 tds (Michigan passing record for tds in a game) with no picks. Nice debut kid.

His next game was a solid effort with 3 tds and no picks. Just one problem, this games were against Bowling Green and Rice.

Navrre's first game against a BCS team was just a disaster, an 8-28 performance, in a horrid loss to UCLA.

Unfortunately for Navarre, I think he lost a lot of fan's good will with this game. The next game didn't help his case, he started out terrible against Illinois, luckily for M fans Drew Henson stepped in and lead to team to victory.

And Michigan fans would not have to worry about Navarre until 2002, as Henson would finish out 2000 and return for a glorious senior campaign in 2001.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. Henson bolted for baseball, and Navarre was the default guy in 2001. But hey whats the worst that could happen right?

The 2001 Painful Numbers

Navarre had 4 games of 50% or less passes completed. That is just horrible. Included in this was a game with 58 passing yards. 58 yards passing, a paltry amount of completions, 5.3 yards per completion (yes completion not attempt0 what is this the Ken O'Keefe offense?

The numbers alone do not describe how bad 2001 Navarre is. All that needs to be discribed is the 2001 OSU game.

Really all I should say here is that Navarre was yanked for Jermaine Gonzalez. Who promptly came in, lined up in the shotgun, watched the ball zip past him for an OSU safety. Well that it for Jermaine Gonzalez, he was yanked after the half. I have to mention though, that those 2 free points came with about 30 seconds left in the half. Navarre was sucking so bad that Lloyd tried to have Jermaine Gonzalez do something with 30 seconds left in the half.

Navarre didn't suck as bad in the second half, but it didn't matter as his incredible suckitude put Michigan in such a deep hole that they were playing catchup the whole time.

Navrre's numbers: 21-47 with 4 picks. Oh and 15 of those completions were to Marquis Walker.

This loss at home, to a very mediocre OSU team, was just awful. Michigan as bad as they had been at times in the 2001 season still was leading the Big Ten and only needed to beat OSU to go to the BCS. Unfortunately, this debacle happened and in Tressel's debut at the Big House he gained the upper hand on the rivalry, and he has not let up.

John Navarre 2001, the Starting Anti-Carr team QB.

(All worked out pretty well for Navarre, he improved over his next two seasons, won a bowl game, and beat OSU.)

Friday, July 18, 2008

My next post (within the next few days) will continue MgoBlogs, sadly discontinued "Anti-Carr" team feature. Brian (of MgoBlog) my have discontinued his coverage of this gripping series due to backlash, but do to said backlash (which I consider to be beyond lame) I am going to carry the torch and finish out the "Anti-Carr" team with a twist!

The twist being that I am going to do it one position at a time, rather than the one position group at a time.

The D-Line has been accounted for, what position will be next? Find out on the next edition of the Anti-Carr team.